Not good news, having worked on this site and the ammonia plant my condolences go out to his family.
Any news on how, why this happened would be appreciated.
Ammonia is a great refrigerant but as with anything must be treated with respect.

Quality

10-11-2016, 10:04 AM

I have worked there also.
I don't have any facts I just seen it this morning whilst reading the news

Grizzly

10-11-2016, 10:10 AM

Any updates as and when will be eagerly read and appreciated.
Thankfully these are rare incidents, but still I feel the clip board brigade will have a field day!
Sad, Sad news!
Grizzly

Grizzly

10-11-2016, 10:36 AM

I Guess the reaction has just started?
As a Company with whom we look after a lot of their Ammonia Sites nationally.
Have just issued blanked orders for us to inspect the Ammonia Alarms on each site.
Grizzly

Definitely a sad day when someone dies given all the safety systems in place with regard to ammonia.
Fairly rare these days.
The clip board experts will desend on the place in mass and the Lawyers will be sharpening their knives going for the kill.

Josip

11-11-2016, 09:47 AM

It is sad day whenever someone dies in accident ... within industry making daily bread ...

For me something is not clear ... injured are 9 firefighters and 2 policeman ... very strange ... all of them must lack induction of safety rules when fight with ammonia ...

3 decades ago something similar happened to me ... one pipe connection to compressor went apart (was not tight enough) releasing a lot of vapour ammonia and compressor oil ... it was petrochemical plant and firefighters arrived very fast and eager to fight against any "enemy" ... unfortunately this one they never met before ... finally we have to rescue firefighter man from ammonia gas cloud (he rush in engine room thinking that is water vapour and fall to the floor instantly) ... if we were not there in that moment, I do not know what will be at the end ...

Best regards, Josip

cadwaladr

11-11-2016, 05:37 PM

Nowadays strict safety should be in place,the cause of the loss of life has not yet been reported but fire fighters over here do not rush into hazardous situations willingly but sometimes if a life or lives are at risk they do worldwide as we saw live on 9/11 unfortunately accidents do happen and lives are lost but lessons are learned,safety is paramount and should be adhered to at all times never compromise it and if you see the correct standards not being observed report it.

Magoo

12-11-2016, 02:08 AM

can only imagine Carlsberg being a reputable global operation would have had every safety option covered.
One thing they could never ever cover is the Human factor, sadly a real actual major issue with H&S.
will be interesting how all this pans out.
I have heard of people being killed by fork hoists because they felt safe with hard hat and a hi viz vest on. Dumb.

cadwaladr

12-11-2016, 03:02 AM

Sometimes the biggest companies make the biggest mistakes?

hookster

18-12-2016, 05:49 PM

Just an unconfirmed explanation for the Ammonia leak at the Carlsberg Brewery. The latest news that I received is that the accident was a result of a failure of a lift & shift operation in the vicinity of the ammonia pipe lines.

A piece of machinery was being moved by a lift & shift team when the lift failed and the machinery fell fracturing the Ammonia liquid line. This result in a massive release of Ammonia refrigerant and the subsequent fatality.

Grizzly

18-12-2016, 06:14 PM

Just an unconfirmed explanation for the Ammonia leak at the Carlsberg Brewery. The latest news that I received is that the accident was a result of a failure of a lift & shift operation in the vicinity of the ammonia pipe lines.

A piece of machinery was being moved by a lift & shift team when the lift failed and the machinery fell fracturing the Ammonia liquid line. This result in a massive release of Ammonia refrigerant and the subsequent fatality.

Thanks for the update Hookster.
Very much appreciated.
I am sure many like me have lost count of the number of times I have had to "Remind Scaffolders and other contractors, that the live Ammonia pipes are to be treated with the utmost caution."

Not that many listen!

A truely Important lesson can be learned here!
There is one family that won't have a good Christmas.
I hope many will learn from this.
Grizzly

Tycho

12-01-2017, 07:16 PM

Just an unconfirmed explanation for the Ammonia leak at the Carlsberg Brewery. The latest news that I received is that the accident was a result of a failure of a lift & shift operation in the vicinity of the ammonia pipe lines.

A piece of machinery was being moved by a lift & shift team when the lift failed and the machinery fell fracturing the Ammonia liquid line. This result in a massive release of Ammonia refrigerant and the subsequent fatality.

Thanks for the update!

I did a google search to see if there were any updates on the investigation before I got to your reply, and I found one thing that appalled me and one thing that impressed (if that's the correct word to use) me.

The thing that impressed me, was what I found on the Carlsberg homepage:
http://www.wearecarlsberg.co.uk/newsroom/post/carlsberg-uk-statement

(too much text for me to quote here)

Usually companies try to sweep incidents like this under the carpet and pretend they didn't happen, in the hopes that people will forget, but Carlsberg has been updating the public with information themselves.

Probably not the best safety procedures…
November 18, 2016 3:37pm All News Stories Health & Safety News Ammonia leak at Carlsberg plant
14475
Emergency services were last week called to a brewery after reports of a gas leak.

Eleven employees, two police officers and nine firefighters were hospitalised following an ammonia leak at the Carlsberg plant in Northampton. A worker died and another is in a serious but stable condition.

Ammonia is a widely used industrial chemical noted for having a strong urine-like smell. Exposure can cause serious burns and lung tissue damage. In 2013, at least 15 people died in an ammonia leak at a storage plant in Shanghai.

Workers were seen leaving the Carlsberg site with tissues over their mouths.

Northamptonshire Police said six fire pumps were called to “secure” the site but that no cordons or road closures were needed.

It is thought the leak was confined to the plant and that members of the public were not at risk. However, as a precaution the Health and Safety Executive requested fire crews went back to the plant to make sure the gas had gone and “all of the valves have been completely isolated”.

Carlsberg UK confirmed ammonia was used as a refrigerant and in the production process.

The company said nothing was more important than the safety of its workers. It stated “We are working closely with the authorities to investigate how this tragic incident occurred and we will be in a position to say more once a full investigation has been concluded.”

Production at the plant has temporarily stopped.

A joint police and HSE investigation is expected to continue over the coming weeks.

If Ellis Whittam did their Health & Safety, this probably wouldn’t have happened!

When I started reading, I thought it was a short report on the HSE findings, until I got to that last sentence, and it completely threw me, so I scrolled back up to read it again, and that is when I noticed the picture... That they have actually made the text "probably" look like the carlsberg logo... I mean, putting something like this online before the HSE report is public and no one really knows what really happened... I read Hooksters "unconfirmed" report before I read this, but this part just left a bad taste in my mouth...

I thought Ambulance chasing was a US problem...

Maybe I am overreacting, but I read this http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/tribute-carlsberg-gas-leak-victim-was-a-really-lovely-happy-family-man-with-a-beautiful-family-1-7687829 before the lawyer webpage, and it just felt wrong